1. Field
Embodiments relate to a door lock control apparatus and method of a washing machine which senses opening and closing of a door using a door lock switch.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a washing machine (generally, a drum type washing machine) includes a tub to contain water (washing water or rinsing water), a drum rotatably mounted in the tub to contain laundry, and a motor to generate driving force to rotate the drum, and washes the laundry by raising and dropping the laundry in the drum along the inner wall of the drum when the cylindrical drum is rotated.
In such a washing machine, a door is openably and closably provided such that the laundry is put into or taken out of the drum, and a door lock switch to lock the door such that the door is not opened during the operation of the washing machine is provided on one side of the door.
The door lock switch simultaneously performs a lock/unlock function of the door and a power on/off function of an electrical part. To this end, the electrical part is operated only when the door is closed, such that a user is protected from accidents during mechanical operation, such as the rotation of the drum.
In the door lock switch, a bimetal latch or a solenoid is used to perform the lock/unlock operation of the door. As the quality of a product is improved, a time consumed for lock/unlock is relatively increased. Thus, the solenoid scheme is preferred to the bimetal latch scheme. In order to reduce costs, even in the solenoid scheme, a method of controlling a lock/unlock operation by toggling one solenoid instead of two solenoids has been developed.
Recently, a door lock switch including a switch to sense opening or closing of a door in addition to a basic operation such as a lock/unlock operation of the door has been developed. When the door is not closed, the electrical part is not powered on so as to prevent Product Liability (PL) accidents in advance. However, since a separate switch is added to mechanically reject the opening or closing of the door, this door lock switch is not preferable in terms of cost reduction.